Opinion: Editorials

From the Editorial Advisory Board: Stories of 2015 (Part 1)

This week's topic: What was your favorite news story of 2015 -- local, national or international -- and why?

Eight years after the Great Recession began, only one economy in the world is strong enough for its central bank to begin to raise the cost of money.

The top story of 2015 is a question: Why us?

The U.K. is close, which only adds to the mystery. What in our shared culture helped? Oil-rich, compulsive-saving Norway had no recession. Proximity to us helped Mexico and Canada. The rest of the world is a mess.

You'd think we were, too, from policy discourse. Government is too big or too small. Not enough federal borrowing and stimulus spending or too much. Burden-sharing and incomes are unequal. The 1 percent ran off with everything. Takers versus the taken-from. Too much regulation or too easy on business.

Political wings chew on each other in non-stop fault-finding. Education, fracking, health care, guns, the President, abortion, climate, Congress — blame and blame. But we are doing better than anywhere else. Our banks are safer than ever, credit flows, incomes are rising slowly but unemployment is so low the Fed has begun to lean against it.

Did the Fed fix us? Every other central bank has used the same tools, but the rest of the world is stuck in near-deflation, debt-default, and exhausted national budgets. Not us.

One American exception stands out: we allow change. Decentralized adaptation, chaotic and unequal, often to the consternation of markets and government. But change beats staying put.

The six-year-old girl was killed early Christmas morning in 1996. The unsolved murder haunts Boulder and those associated with the case. It's a sad, seasonal perennial as evidenced by its gruesome and maudlin popularity.

Like dogs sensing danger, humans can sense injustice and there was no more grotesque injustice I know of locally than the Ramsey case. Many attribute it to the social status of the parents.

Beckner, for reasons known only to himself, agreed to an interview with the wildly popular online news group reddit. He later admitted he didn't know what he was getting into when he opened up about some of his personal feelings regarding the case. What does this tell us about his background research and better judgement?

To Beckner's credit, however, he, much more than the disastrous Tom Koby or Alex Hunter, was straight enough with the general public to let it be known that the case wasn't closed, that the parents had not been exonerated and that the grand jury wanted to indict them both. I'll give him that much. Due to the diligent efforts of Ramsey attorney Lin Wood, some of this runs against a carefully-curated public perception.

"Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me." — F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Rich Boy"

Don Wrege, donsopinion@gmail.com

The third-most viewed news story in the Camera — and my favorite — was the 2015 Boulder Voters Guide. It is gratifying to know that so many people want to exercise their right to participate in our election process. The most important element of a free society is the right to vote. And it seems to be continuously under attack.

This year was the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that helped to secure voting rights for African-Americans and other minorities primarily in the South. In subsequent decades, according to author Ari Berman, the number of black registered voters in the South increased from 31 percent to 73 percent; the number of black elected officials increased from fewer than 500 to 10,500 nationwide; the number of black members of Congress increased from five to 44.

In 2013, in the Shelby County case, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a critical portion of the Voting Rights Act that required pre-clearance by the Department of Justice before states could enact laws that could restrict voters' rights. Prior to the Shelby decision, from 1965 to 2013 the DOJ blocked more than 3,000 proposed voting restrictions. Since that 2013 Supreme court decision, voter ID laws, and laws restricting the days and hours of voting have been enacted in 15 states including Texas, North Carolina, Kansas and Tennessee. These new restrictions could affect up to 162 electoral votes in the 2016 presidential election.

My favorite story broke on June 26 when the U.S. Supreme Court determined the Fourteenth Amendment requires states to license and recognize same-sex marriages. The dominos of injustice fell quickly in this arena, and there are profound ramifications ranging from influencing international consensus on the acceptability of LGBT people to the very real impacts on individual families.

In Boulder, we can be proud of being on the front lines of this debate for decades. In 1975, Boulder's Clela Rorex became the first county clerk to issue same-sex marriage licenses. Almost 40 years later, Hillary Hall took on Colorado's right-wing attorney general, issuing licenses to couples as soon as it was legally defensible. We're fortunate that both of these brave women still live in Boulder County, and that there are opportunities to meet them, hear their stories, and thank them personally.

Like so many others, my husband and I have been able to experience what it is like to go from being part of an unacceptable and reviled minority to being given the familial respect and protection straight folks have taken for granted for generations. We notice countless significant improvements in how we navigate public life on a daily basis.

It's been a sad year of loss as we experienced the passing of my dear mother. Joyce was a staunchly outspoken advocate for LGBT people, and I will be forever grateful that she was healthy enough in June to enjoy this historic moment.

My favorite story took place in a Milwaukee bar. I got the details straight from the bartender. Like most good Wisconsin bar stories, the protagonist was named Eddie. His story involved alcohol (obviously), cigarettes (of course), fire (no surprise there), and divine retribution (always). Unfortunately, the details aren't suitable for a general circulation newspaper.

While back in Wisconsin, I read a story in the local paper that briefly went national.

A kid who was too young to purchase a firearm paid someone with a clinical lack of intelligence to buy a semiautomatic handgun for him at a shop that led Milwaukee, and sometimes the nation, in the sales of firearms recovered from crimes. (Federal law now prohibits the ATF from releasing such information.)

Despite being underage, the kid was allowed in the store, chose the weapon, and looked over the straw buyer's shoulder as he struggled with the forms. The clerk pointed out that the straw buyer had provided inconsistent answers as to whether he was buying the weapon for himself. The forms were corrected. The straw buyer and the kid left, and returned with the money.

A month later, the kid shot two cops. They survived, and sued the store for arming someone who had no business being armed. The jury opened fire on the store.

A similar case is set for trial this spring. Two more wounded cops. Same store.

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